Is sugar the new smoking?

Sugar is as addictive as meth, cheaper than chips and the number one contributor to the global obesity epidemic!

The source

The public’s prodigious sugar consumption has been a newspaper mainstay for years, hand-in-hand with reports of what the sweet stuff is doing to our innards: high blood pressure, liver damage, heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, apocalyptic teeth...

Then there are the tales of sugar’s evil moreishness. One startling study found that lab rats would choose sugar over cocaine – even when they were already addicted to cocaine.

The facts

When it comes to sugar, in this case, you can believe the hype – within reason.

“Too much sugar in the diet means too many calories, which leads to weight gain,” says Dr Varney. “That makes you more prone to developing life-threatening illnesses such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some cancers.”

But it’s not all bad news. “There’s no evidence to suggest we should completely remove sugar from our diet,” Dr Varney continues. “We needn’t worry about the sugars found in dairy, whole fruit and vegetables, but we need to significantly cut down on added sugars, as well as
the sugars contained in honey, syrups and fruit juice – known as ‘free sugars’. Adults should be consuming no more than 30g of free sugars each day.” Bad news for your lunchtime meal deal: that’s roughly one Mars Bar or a 330ml glass of orange juice per day.

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